“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
God grounds His right to command on two things: He is the eternal Jehovah, the Being of beings who gives existence to all creatures, and He is their God in covenant, their King under a Theocracy. The exodus proves His power and obligates them to obey His laws with reverence and cheerfulness, for He has made them a free kingdom under Him alone.
AI summary
I am the Lord thy God--This is a preface to the ten commandments--the latter clause being specially applicable to the case of the Israelites, while the former brings it home to all mankind; showing that the reasonableness of the law is founded in their eternal relation as creatures to their Creator, and their mutual relations to each other.
God spoke these words Himself with dreadful pomp, not merely whispered through conscience or providence, but with the authority of Jehovah, the self-existent One. He bound Israel threefold: by His nature as eternal Lord, by covenant as their God, and by His power to reward obedience and punish disobedience.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 20:1-11